Discusses the beneficial aspects of "E-Prime" (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be") and shows how it can be used to alert students to the pitfalls of that verb. Provides examples of how one form of the verb can be greatly overused and abused. (HB)

Argues that a complete alteration of English to the form called "E-Prime" (a form of English that eliminates all forms of the verb "to be") is not possible and would result in losing important speech patterns, such as identities and identification. Lists patterns of identification. Concludes by advocating "E-Choice"…

This study of 3 boys (ages 5-6) with autism found that adult high-constraint antecedent utterances elicited more verbal utterances in general, including subjects' echolalia; adult low-constraint utterances elicited more subject high-constraint utterances; and the degree of adult-utterance constraint did not influence the mean lengths of subjects'…

Studies intertextuality in teachers' peer dialog journal exchanges. Findings show that the meaning of intertextual links between entries has much to do with partners' shared stances toward gender roles (for the exchange between two women) and their roles as teachers within the school (for the exchange between two men). (Author)

In many languages, the article cannot occur when a possessive phrase is present in the noun phrase (NP). Argues that these patterns can be understood in terms of economic motivation because possessed NPs are very likely to be definite. Shows how the performance motivation of economy creates the competence pattern in diachronic change. (Author/VWL)

Examines age of acquisition of multiple wh-questions in English and Korean, whether there is any difference between English and Korean in terms of the stage at which the multiple wh-question pattern emerges, and whether there is any difference in the degree of difficulty of various multiple wh-questions in Korean and English. (Author/VWL)

This study, with 30 preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 controls, found a dissociation between limited learning of training targets (words, affixed forms) and limited bound-morpheme generalization (BMG) performance. Results suggest limited BMG reflects problems not with storage or access of facts but with the…

Examined gender differences in emotional language in children's picture books, using 178 books read to or by preschool children. Males had higher representations on titles, pictures, and central roles, but males and females were associated with equal amounts of emotional language and similar types of emotional words. (SLD)

Summarizes research on structure of gesture produced in absence of speech. Finds that gestures of both hearing individuals who have been asked not to speak and deaf individuals who depend solely on gesture to communicate (including homesigners) exhibit characteristics typically associated with speech; gestures are segmented and linear rather than…

Examines a mixed pattern of subject omission in Hebrew. Longitudinal data is presented from three children whose first and only language is Hebrew. Findings show very early acquisition of the null subject system. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the bare-noun phrase (NP) complementation pattern of the Spanish verb "tener" (have). Shows that the maximality of the complement NP is dependent upon three factors: (1) idiosyncratic valence requirements; (2) encyclopedic knowledge related to possession; and (3) contextualized semantic construal. (Author/VWL)

Examines the language of the underworld, a language that includes slang spoken in prisons. This language functions not so much as a secret code whose primary purpose is to deceive but as a means by which members share an identity. Such speech fosters group solidarity, mutual recognition, prestige, and a sense of exclusiveness. (25 references) (CK)

Reports on linguistic features and patterns of coherence in mild and advanced levels of discourse of Alzheimer's patients. Argues and demonstrates that, as the disease progresses, patients' discourse becomes "pregrammatical"--vocabulary-driven and reliant on meaning-based discourse features rather than grammatically based features.…

Based on an investigation of spellings of German punk fanzines, this article sketches a framework for the analysis of nonstandard spellings in media texts. The analysis distinguishes between a number of spelling types, which include both representations of spoken language and purely graphemic modifications, and three patterns of spelling usage:…

This study, using the Boston Naming Test, explores the notion that learned associations based on lexical co-occurrence probability influence sentence planning and may contribute to the ability of aphasic speakers to produce well-formed sentences. The study finds that use of lexical associates can facilitate sentence planning for adult aphasic…